{"id":6784,"date":"2014-07-20T10:25:36","date_gmt":"2014-07-20T08:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petitesbullesdailleurs.fr\/petitesbullesdailleurs\/?p=6784"},"modified":"2021-06-08T23:02:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T21:02:11","slug":"whale-shark-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petitesbullesdailleurs.fr\/en\/requins-baleines-whale-shark-mexique-20140720\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mexican Whale Shark's Huge Mouth is Worth the Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

I crossed an ocean for them. Whale sharks - tiburones ballena<\/em> in Spanish - gather in July and August off Mexico's Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Awesome!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yes, in this month of July 2014, I am in Mexico. This is a new destination on the Little Bubbles of Elsewhere! I usually hang out in Southeast Asia more during the summer vacations... But I really wanted to see this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Whale<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Every year, from mid-June to mid-September<\/strong>Whale sharks gather by the hundreds off the Yucatan Peninsula, near the Yum Balam Nature Reserve in Mexico. They come to feed on tiny translucent tuna eggs, abundant in the area in this season. You can swim with them by snorkeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intensity of the experience is proportional to the size of the animal. It's just enooormous!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Whale<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Those are the biggest fish in the world<\/strong>. They don't have teeth (only tiny teeth of a few millimeters that are not very useful), but they are sharks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like whales (which are mammals, not fish), they are gigantic and feed on tiny marine organisms (plankton) and small fish, which they swallow by filtering the water with their mouths wide open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They measure in the 12-14 meters at the adult age. The largest specimens can reach, it seems, 18 to 20 meters and weigh 20 to 30 tons...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Whale<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about these unusual fish, I refer you to the Wikipedia entry \"whale shark\".<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous meeting: in Thailand, in 2006!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"With
With a whale shark in Thailand, in 2006.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My previous encounter with a whale shark was in 2006! It was in Thailand<\/a>during a dive-cruise in the Similan Islands, near Richelieu Rock (the picture on the right, where you can see me with my little compact camera of the time, was taken by another diver, Daniel Cocker, whom I thank for the picture!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had tried to cross their path again off Koh Lanta in 2007<\/a>then in Sogod Bay in the Philippines in 2008<\/a>. In vain. More recently, during a diving cruise in the Maldives<\/a> in February 2014, I once again managed to miss a whale shark... Frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, this summer, I decided to fly to the west: direction Mexico, where the meeting with these giants of the sea is certain at 100% in July!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update 2018 :<\/strong><\/span> four years after this 2014 trip to Mexico, I had the chance to meet whale sharks again... See my post here : 
\u2192 In the Philippines, let the whale shark come to you<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Whale<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Video: swimming with whale sharks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What a show! The animals are there, on the surface, swallowing big swallows of plankton, indifferent to the small swimmers tossed by the swell around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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